The document analyzes retail trends from the 2013 Black Friday weekend, with a focus on mobile/electronics sales. It finds that while overall shopper traffic was up only 3%, traffic on Thanksgiving Day increased 27% year-over-year. Tablets accounted for 39% of electronics purchased and were a top promotional item. Handset promotions centered around gift cards making the Samsung Galaxy S4 and Apple iPhones 5c and 5s available for low prices or free. The document predicts continued growth in online sales and earlier promotions in 2014.

1. 2013 Black Friday Weekend
CATEGORY REVIEW: MOBILE / ELECTRONICS
NATIONAL RETAIL
TREND REPORT
BRIGHTSTAR
A N A LY T I C S

2. 2013 BLACK FRIDAY WEEKEND
CATEGORY REVIEW: MOBILE / ELECTRONICS
CON TE NTS
Results at Retail: Traffic and Spend
Overall Electronics
Online Shopping — Black Friday / Cyber Monday
Black Friday Handset Promotions
What the Winners Did
Predictions for Remainder of 2013 and Beyond
NATIONAL RETAIL
TREND REPORT
BRIGHTSTAR
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3. 2013 BLACK FRIDAY WEEKEND
CATEGORY REVIEW: MOBILE / ELECTRONICS
Results at Retail:
Traffic and Spend
141 million unique shoppers found their way into
retail stores during the 2013 Thanksgiving/Black
Friday shopping weekend. That number was
relatively flat to 2012’s number of 139 million.
Shopper Traffic
3%
While overall shopper traffic was only up 3%,
record numbers of customers found their way to
stores on Thanksgiving Day resulting in a 27%
increase in traffic over Thanksgiving Day 2012;
unfortunately traffic on Black Friday appears to
have suffered as the day was down 13.2% in
relation to 2012. (NRF Survey)
3.8%
Spend per shopper
Average spending per
shopper for the weekend
remained relatively steady at
$ 407 compared to the $ 423
spent in 2012. Overall
spending reached $57.4 billion,
down 2.9% from 2012.
(NRF Survey)
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4. 2013 BLACK FRIDAY WEEKEND
CATEGORY REVIEW: MOBILE / ELECTRONICS
Overall Electronics
Electronics continue to drive Black Friday weekend
sales with over 1,500 promotions dedicated to the
category during the weekend. (CEA)
TVS – 400 PROMOTIONS
HEADPHONES – 330 PROMOTIONS
UP FROM 200 PROMOTIONS LAST YEAR
TABLETS – NEARLY 300 PROMOTIONS
MOBILE PHONES – 250 PROMOTIONS
LAPTOP COMPUTERS – 150 PROMOTIONS
MP3 PLAYERS – 125 PROMOTIONS
Tablets accounted for 39% of all electronics
purchased during Black Friday, making it #1 in the
electronics category. TV sales, on the other hand,
dropped in comparison to previous Black Fridays.
Over 39% of
the electronics
purchased
were tablets
during this year’s
Black Friday
shopping period.
Currently, it is projected that 1 in every 2 American
households will have a tablet by the end of 2013.
Tech Crunch reports that over 1.4 million tablets
were sold by a top retailer during their sale, which
began Thanksgiving morning.
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5. 2013 BLACK FRIDAY WEEKEND
CATEGORY REVIEW: MOBILE / ELECTRONICS
THE TOP SITES DURING
BLACK FRIDAY WEEKEND:
1
Online Shopping — Black Friday/
Cyber Monday
Black Friday Sales
It was the first online billion dollar day of the year
as online retail sites brought in $1.20 billion in sales
(up 15% from 2012). Average spend online Black
Friday was $135.27 per transaction versus the
Cyber Monday number of $128.77 per transaction.
(Comscore, Inc)
2
Cyber Monday Sales
Black Friday sales numbers were eclipsed by
Cyber Monday, bringing in $2.29 billion in sales up
16% LY (Adobe Digital Index). Cyber Monday 2013
and the four days preceding it are now the largest
online shopping sales period in history.
3
4
Online Shoppers
Over 23% of Black Friday and 17% of Cyber
Monday online shoppers placed their orders from
mobile phones (up 43% and 55% respectively from
2012), reinforcing the growing importance of
mobile phones as a valid shopping platform. (IBM)
5
Almost 25% of online traffic was
generated via a smartphone.
While online shopping continues to grow, the
percentage of total online purchases dedicated to
Consumer Electronics (CE) continues to be
relatively small as CE represented only 7% of all
Black Friday online purchases. (Comscore, Inc)
(Adobe Digital Index)
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6. 2013 BLACK FRIDAY WEEKEND
CATEGORY REVIEW: MOBILE / ELECTRONICS
Black Friday Handset Promotions
The year’s four hottest devices (Galaxy S3 & S4 and
iPhone 5c & 5s) were featured consistently among
top national retailers’ Black Friday promotions. Many
leveraged gift cards as a means of supplementing
price to drive in-store and online handset sales.
NOTE: Promotions for Samsung and iPhone were
carrier agnostic this year.
Samsung
- ADVERTISING: Many retailers featured the S4
prominently in Ad during Black Friday – The S4
was the only phone with Ad coverage across ALL
top national retailers.
- PROMOTIONS: Four of the S4 promotions netted
to Free after gift card; only 1 offer was Free without
gift card.
- PRODUCT: Only two of the key retailers chose to
promote the S3 in Ad.
Apple
- ADVERTISING: All of the top national retailers
featured either an iPhone 5c or 5s this year
- PRICING: iPhone 5c pricing before gift card was
consistent among the 3 who advertised it: $45-$49.
Only 1 national retailer priced the 5c at $0 with
2-year activation.
- PROMOTIONS: No iPhone 5s prices found their
way under $100 even after gift card promotions —
and these were priced $179-$199 before gift cards.
NATIONAL RETAIL
Gift Cards
Gift Cards were aggressively used in netting
phones to free during this holiday season, driving
incremental and theoretically more margin-rich
sales through gift card redemption (store-specific
cards).
While most gift card promotions utilized store
specific cards, general cards (Visa, MasterCard,
etc.) also found their way into Black Friday
promotions. (Brightstar)
Phone Trade In
Several retailers promoted their
phone Buy Back/Trade In, offering
customers up to $300 for their
used phones.
Insight
Customer feedback on actual values
offered at store will be interesting as
we continue to evaluate this holiday
season. Well-received programs
could lead to the remainder of the
electronics market integrating Buy
Back/Trade In promotions next year.
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7. 2013 BLACK FRIDAY WEEKEND
CATEGORY REVIEW: MOBILE / ELECTRONICS
What the Winners Did
Made Handset Price the Primary Factor
Samsung product at free was a key win during the
period, either netting to free after gift card or just
plain free.
Got Customers to End Dinner Early
In an effort to jumpstart the brick & mortar holiday
shopping season, many retailers opened their
doors early on Thanksgiving Day. This was just
one strategy to lengthen the calendar-shortened
holiday shopping season.
Advertised Samsung and Apple
If there was any question before, it has now been
answered — the US handset market is owned by
Samsung and Apple. Both were big winners during
the Black Friday weekend.
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8. 2013 BLACK FRIDAY WEEKEND
Predictions for Remainder
of 2013 and Beyond
2013 - Panic Sales
For the balance of 2013, we can expect to see
“Panic Sales” coming on products that didn’t
meet their Black Friday sales projections as well
as whole store sales for chains that have fallen off
their anticipated sales pace during the first week
of holiday shopping. From a handset perspective,
expect to see retailers aggressively advertise slow
moving devices in a bid to clear back rooms and
shelves as early as possible. Also look to see Black
Friday-type promotions continue on GS4 & GS3
product from retailers that were not as successful
as they had hoped during the weekend. (Brightstar)
CATEGORY REVIEW: MOBILE / ELECTRONICS
2014 Holiday
Flat Disposable Income and Job Growth
Projections for disposable Income and Job Growth in 2014 are not
positive. These will continue to lead toward consumer confidence
issues as we move into the midterm election year. These factors will
likely lead to reduced or stagnant overall spending during the 2014
Holiday season. (Brightstar)
Mission Shopping Becoming More Prevalent
Mission shopping is when a customer shops a retailer for a specific
item based on price, and for that item only. Consumers will spend but
not on peripheral items. This will impact margin rates as loss leaders
will not be buoyed by add on peripheral and accessory sales. (Brightstar)
Shopping and Promotions Will Begin Earlier
Look for retail doors to open earlier on Thanksgiving Day. Those sales
will continue to eat into the volume historically associated with Black
Friday. The same holds true for promotions with several retailers
offering up matching Black Friday deals on Tuesday and Wednesday
before Thanksgiving. (Brightstar)
Online Sales Will Continue to Grow
ComScore has projected that 2014 Thanksgiving Day sales will be
$1 billion. Black Friday and Cyber Week sales will continue to grow,
eating into brick & mortar sales as online mission shopping becomes
easier and more affordable with free shipping.
Tablet Ads Will Increase While Tablet Sales Will Level Out
Tablets are projected to have a 55-60% or greater household
penetration by Holiday 2014. The CEA estimates market saturation for
consumer electronics at 65-70%.
NATIONAL RETAIL
TREND REPORT
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9. 2013 BLACK FRIDAY WEEKEND
CATEGORY REVIEW: MOBILE / ELECTRONICS
About Brightstar
Retail Doors
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